Business big-names from the region are getting behind a Cambridge University spin-out which is reprogramming human cells for use in drug development.

Elpis Biomed has been formed to apply its proprietary “direct cell reprogramming” platform to produce pure, mature and highly consistent batches of human cell types for research, toxicology and drug development.

It has raised an undisclosed amount of cash in a funding round led by serial investor and Abcam founder Jonathan Milner, with co-investments from Horizon Discovery Group boss Darrin Disley, Weslie Janeway and Nikolaus Starzacher. The money will be used to grow the company’s catalogue of off-the-shelf human cell type products and expand its service offerings, marking its first step towards more complex products, including human organ-on-chip models, and cell-based therapies.

The use of human cells, rather than animal models, is becoming increasingly important in the context of research, toxicology, and drug discovery, but they remain in short supply and often lack consistency.

Dr Mark Kotter, scientific founder and CEO of Elpis said: “Elpis’ near-term goal is to allow every scientist to base their work on human cells, without the need of having particular expertise in stem cell biology. In the long term, we would like to develop our technology for clinical application.”

The technology is already generating skeletal muscle cells, blood precursors, neuronal and glial cells, and the Company plans to expand its product offerings to human cells with distinct genetic backgrounds, as well as providing bespoke cells with synthetic mutations or gene insertions that meet specific research requirements.

Dr Milner added: “I’m thrilled to be backing Mark Kotter and his team at Elpis BioMed. Elpis’ approach to making human cells is truly disruptive - it reduces manufacturing time and at the same time increases purity by an order of magnitude. But what is most important: it allows for unprecedented levels of consistency and minimal batch-to-batch variability.”